A passenger plane belonging to a small Russian airline, which was flying over 220 people from an Egyptian resort to Saint Petersburg, has vanished from radars over Sinai. Authorities in Egypt have confirmed the plane has crashed.
A Russian airliner carrying 217 passengers on an Airbus A-321 from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh crashed en route to St Petersburg.
The Russian airline Kogalymavia, known as Metrojet, crashed in central Sinai, Egypt with 217 passengers – including seven children – and an additional seven crew onboard.
The crash site was found on Saturday morning in southern Arish, a mountainous area of central Sinai. Poor weather conditions are causing difficult rescue operations.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said Sherif Ismail had formed a cabinet-level crisis committee to deal with the crash.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft 23 minutes into the flight, according to FlightRadar24.com. The aircraft showed a steep descent at a rate of 6,000 feet per minute shortly before the data signal was lost.
Northern Sinai is home to groups of Islamist militants affiliated to Islamic State, but so far no signs of a ground-to-air missile attack have been discovered.
Flight History …
flightradar24.com/data/flights/7k9268/#7d986d3
Speed / Alt plotted on graph. Speed (purple) drops off before we lost contact at 04:13:10z #7K9268 pic.twitter.com/yhJSZ1Dclw
— Plane Finder (@planefinder) October 31, 2015
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